ABSTRACT
Background
Hurricane Katrina forced the temporary closure of Tulane University School of Medicine
requiring relocation to the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. This required
curricular restructuring, and resulted in faculty/student challenges. The effect of
these stresses on student performance was studied.
Methods
A pre-Katrina and post-Katrina comparative analysis of all Tulane medical students’
performance on standardized exams, internal examination and United States Medical
Licensing Examination (USMLE) step exams was performed. A one-way analysis of variance
was used to determine if mean examination scores differed from pre-Katrina to post-Katrina.
Results
Internal examination scores did not differ significantly. National standardized examination
grades significantly decreased pre-Katrina to post-Katrina in Biochemistry, Pharmacology,
Pathology, Medicine, Pediatrics and Psychiatry (P < 0.05). There was no statistical change in USMLE scores.
Conclusions
Tulane students had a statistically significant decline in performance on many course
and clerkship examinations, though overall performance on licensing examinations was
unchanged. Many stresses may have affected students’ ability to perform.
KEY INDEXING TERMS
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to The American Journal of the Medical SciencesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Medical education in post-Katrina New Orleans.JAMA. 2007; 298: 1052-1055
- Flash flood: Hurricane Katrina’s inundation of New Orleans.The Times Picayune. 2005 (August 29, Available at, Accessed May 31, 2007)
- Surviving Hurricane Katrina: restructuring the educational enterprise of Tulane University School of Medicine.Acad Med. 2007; 82: 757-762
- Psychiatric issues and answers following Hurricane Katrina.Acad Psychiatry. 2007; 31: 200-204
- Posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents after Hurricane Andrew.J Amer Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1995; 35: 1193-1201
- A prospective study of posttraumatic stress and depressive reactions among treated and untreated adolescents 5 years after a catastrophic disaster.Am J Psychiatry. 2005; 162: 2302-2308
- Stress symptoms among African-American college students after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.J Nerv Mental Dis. 2003; 191: 108-114
- Post-traumatic stress disorder and memory: prescient medicolegal testimony at the international war crimes tribunal.J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2005; 33: 71-78
- Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions.J Neurol Psychiatry. 1957; 20: 11-21
- Why stress is bad for your brain.Science. 1996; 273: 749-750
- The invisible epidemic: post-traumatic stress disorder, memory and the brain. 2000 (Available at, March, Accessed September 17, 2007)
- The effects of stress on memory and the hippocampus throughout the life cycle.Develop Psychopath. 1998; 10: 871-886
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 13,
2008
Received:
April 29,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
